4/28/2015

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STUDENTS Shahzaib Khan, Salar, [California], Bilal Mallik, {Chicago}, and the students of America, must consider organizing a ''posse'', for-

OVER THE NEXT TWO WEEKS, some of the biggest Internet companies and publishers will showcase their original programming in an annual attempt to attract advertising dollars.

The events, taking place in New York under the banner of the Digital Content NewFronts, are equal parts sales pitch and festival. This year, they are also something else : crowded.

Thirty-three companies are holding events -by far the most since the gathering began in 2012 -reflecting a rush to lure ad dollars away from television and secure a portion of the increasing amount of money being spent on digital video.

Television still dominates the United States market, with $68.5 billion of ad spending last year, but the amount spent on digital ads increased to $5.8 billion in the United States in 2014 and its expected to grow to $12.8 billion by 2018, according to the research firm eMarketer.

Part of the appeal for companies of a focused annual event like the New Fronts, they say, is that it can stir demand for their programming and persuade advertisers to commit spending upfront. But with so many companies participating-

And the wealth of available digital content in general - a sense of urgency on the part of the advertisers may now be absent.

''The NewFronts are a marketplace,'' said Carl Fremont, the chief of digital officer at MEC, part of the advertising giant WFP.'' It is becoming crowded, and to find your time to stand out and get an audience is much more challenging.''

In addition to the bog players like AOL, Hulu, Yahoo, YouTube, other companies participating at this year's NewFronts, which start on Monday, inside the fashion website Refinery29 and the news and news and entertainment website BuzzFeed-

As well as Vice, News Corporation and Maker Studios, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The New York Times will also make a presentation.

How these companies are approaching the NewFronts -as well as what ad buyers are hoping to see -illustrates the significant changes in the advertising industry in recent years.

More than ever, advertisers are looking for new ways to reach consumers, who are constantly bombarded by content on multiple devices. Elaborate ad campaigns that use many media platforms are becoming the norm-

With marketeers realizing that they used to be innovative to break through the clutter.

Advertisers, seeking insight into whether their campaigns are working, are also increasingly demanding tools to measure audience behaviour, and optimize the effectiveness of their ads.

''It's not just about the upfront offering,'' said Tara Walpert Levy, managing director of agency sales at Google. ''It's about the value of the platform.''

In response to the year-round nature of digital content and digital ad buying, AOL, which last year announced 16 original shows at its NewFronts event in Brooklyn, will use its presentation Tuesday to announce a plan to introduce digital content of varying length throughout the year for different devices.

''We're going to go out and move from a content season to a content year,'' said Dermot McCormack, the president of video and studios at AOL.

''This is really reacting to not where the world is going but where the world is.''

AOL's strategy also dovetail's with its new advertising platform, called One by AOL, which is said would use data to help advertisers to determine the effectiveness of their online ad campaign on devices like mobile phones and on television.

Other companies plan to unveil offerings that respond to a growing demand from advertisers for easier ways to gain access to premium digital content.

Google's event for YouTube will focus more on its Google Preferred offering, which it announced last year, than on original programming,

Ms Walpert Levy said. Google preferred allows advertisers to identify and buy space on the most popular 5 percent of YouTube videos.

The company will also promote measurement tools that it says will help advertisers gauge audience response.

Marketers are also pouring money in to digital advertising technologies that rely on data and algorithms to buy and sell ads. So called programmatic buying to affecting new advertisers allocate their money, said Amanda Richman, the president of Starcom USA, which is owned by the Publicis Groupe.